Category: Animal Rights/Liberation

250 hens liberated for Sean Kirtley

“With one more comrade behind bars, we decided to turn to a more direct form of action.

250 hens liberated for Sean Kirtley250 hens liberated for Sean Kirtley“With one more comrade behind bars, we decided to turn to a more direct form of action. Sean Kirtley got over 4 years for editing a website. So why bother doing anything legal?

Taking the message from the government loud and clear, we took up the tools of liberation during the night and made our way to an egg battery farm south of York. We ‘broke in’ by opening the door to the lower section of the farm and climbing up to the cages. Over-night we freed 250 hens and took them all to new homes across the country.

This action is dedicated to Sean whose spirit will still be outside those bars helping animals in the face of government stitch-ups and a corrupt legal system.

The change is in our hands, the battle has just begun…
The Animal Liberation Front”

anonymous communique – additional photos

Support Sean Kirtley

Support Sarah Whitehead

Sarah Whitehead is a committed vegan activist who has dedicated her life to saving animals and helping people. She worked tirelessly as a nurse whilst rescuing and rehoming abused and neglected animals, as well as campaigning against the notorious Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Sarah WhiteheadSarah Whitehead is a committed vegan activist who has dedicated her life to saving animals and helping people. She worked tirelessly as a nurse whilst rescuing and rehoming abused and neglected animals, as well as campaigning against the notorious Huntingdon Life Sciences. She is not someone to sit back and let animals be tortured and abused, she stands up and fights wherever she sees injustice and never puts herself first.

Sarah had been informed about an abused beagle. It was living outside in a wooden cage, and was muzzled at all times except for when it got to eat. The dog was made to wear an electric shock collar and the neighbours informed Sarah that they had witnessed beatings from its owners. The neighbours had also heard the dog screaming on many occasions.

The RSPCA had been called numerous times, but they failed to help this dog and left it with owners who had on occasions tied it to a radiator.

All avenues had been explored in trying to lift this animal from hell. The RSPCA, despite numerous complaints and visits to the owners, did nothing; even the police had been called by neighbours, but they just told them to call the RSPCA.

What else was Sarah to do, but rescue the beagle herself? How else could this beagle be saved? Knowing how much it was suffering, could anyone just leave this beagle to live in pain?

Sarah was already on a suspended sentence for rescuing animals from a notorious puppy farmer in West Sussex, which meant that if she re-offended within two years she would be sent to prison for that “crime”. Even knowing this risk to her freedom, Sarah put the dog’s life and well-being first and lifted him to freedom.

Unknown to Sarah she was under police surveillance during the rescue as part of Operation Achilles and the campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. Police followed her and watched her rescue the beagle, and then watched her take the dog to its second stage of its journey to it’s new home.

However, once the beagle was handed over, instead of following the beagle in order to return it to its owner, they carried on following Sarah. Luckily this means that the beagle is still safe and living in a loving home.

Some time later once the police had finished following Sarah around she was arrested, the police weirdly tried to accuse her of stealing the dog so that she could sell it for £500 to raise money for SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) Where this sum of £500 came from is anyone’s guess and it shows how little the police understand the concept of animal rights!

Sarah went on trial for burglary in June 2008. She pleaded not guilty to the offence as she believed she had not committed a crime in rescuing this beagle. She told the court she believed she had acted reasonably and honest and that it was the right thing to do because the police and RSPCA had failed to save this dog. Statements from the neighbours were read in court which described the cruelty to the dog, the beatings, and the screams but bizarrely the jury took the view that Sarah should have left the dog where it was and she was found guilty.

The judge sentenced Sarah to two years in prison, nine months of this is from the suspended sentence she was on, and the extra 1 1/3 years is for rescuing the beagle.

You can write to Sarah at:

Sarah Whitehead VM7684
HMP Bronzefield,
Woodthorpe Road,
Ashford,
Middx
TW15 3JZ.
United Kingdom

Click here for Sarah’s support page

Before going to prison, Sarah campaigned for the following groups, so please check out their websites:

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Southern Animal Rights Coalition
Greyhound Action
Uncaged
BUAV
Vegan Prisoners Support Group
Dr Hadwen Trust

ELF target Coca-Cola twice and wild boar freed

In solidarity with the Austrian activists, imprisoned illegally by the state, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) twice this month targeted Coca-Cola in Mexico for their crimes against the earth and its inhabitants, whilst in Spain, ELF and Animal Liberation Front activists reported that they freed a boar that was awaiting death.

In solidarity with the Austrian activists, imprisoned illegally by the state, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) twice this month targeted Coca-Cola in Mexico for their crimes against the earth and its inhabitants, whilst in Spain, ELF and Animal Liberation Front activists reported that they freed a boar that was awaiting death.

Reported: 28th June

received anonymously:

“On June 1 the bottler and distributor of the multinational coca cola was attacked in Mexico state; its walls were covered in paint and a large painting at the entrance read, ‘Multinational murderers;’ the attacks do not stop and will go on increasing.

Solidarity with prisoners of Austria!
For animal liberation!
For the liberation of the land!
For human liberation!
Sabotage and direct action!

FLT/ELF”

Reported: 24th June

translation from www.accionvegana.org:

“On thursday 12 of june we freed a wild boar in Caceres. We opened the fence that kept him encaged. This easy action has given back freedom to an animal that was waiting to be murdered by hunters.

We want to show our solidarity with our Austrian comrades repressed and to every animal liberation activist in jail.

ALF/ELF”

Reported: 7th June

anonymous communique (translation):

“Coca-Cola, one of the American multinationals responsible for the destruction of our planet, complicit in the exploitation and theft of water from indigenous communities (Chiapas), generating human exploitation by forcing children to work more than 10 hours a day in their sugarcane crops (El Salvador), massive pollution of rivers with toxic products (India), contractor of paramilitary groups that killed union workers (Colombia), financer of death by voluntarily giving a portion of their profits to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, racist since the days of Nazi Germany, partnering with large magnates and multinationals such as Nestle, McDonalds, Chrysler, Texaco, (likewise) responsible for global warming, the brutal exploitation of the land and the food crisis afflicting the world today, should be a primary objective for all those combatants who are fighting against the many aberrations and for the liberation of the land, animals and humans, because this global company alone is an example of the influence of the capitalist system on its owners, the extreme abuse of power and the advancing of its global control over many innocents.
Hence the Frente de Liberación de la Tierra has taken firm action against this scourge; in the evening of June 5 the walls of the company were splashed with paint with a special stench, the vehicles of the administrators were likewise victims of our first but not last attack.
We will return but with even more force.

Dedicated to the fighters of Austria = recently imprisoned by the fascist state of that country.
Forward!

..:FLT:.. – Estado de México”

See also the previous Mexican ALF/ELF action, click here

Arrests As International Whaling Commission Fails To Protect Whales

Fifteen people were arrested by police at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held this year in Santiago, Chile.

IWC protest

Fifteen people were arrested by police at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held this year in Santiago, Chile. The protesters were supposedly trying to ‘storm’ the meeting but other reports state that the mere presence of people in front of the meeting’s venue was seen as a ‘security threat’.

The IWC meets annually to regulate the whaling industry and make decisions on conservation of whale populations. So far the meeting hasn’t reached any agreements and the commission continues to be strongly devided between the pro- and anti-whaling nations. Skye Bortoli, an activist from Teens Against Whaling described the meeting this year as ‘pathetic’, saying “this body will be known in the future as a small group of ecologically arrogant people who are condemning the world’s whales to agony and oblivion for petty politics and a few lousy bucks.”

Related Audio: Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson Talks in London | Interview With Nottingham Activist On Return From Whale Saving Mission

Related Newswire: Iceland Defies Moratorium On Commercial Whaling – Whale Hunt Started | Norway Starts Whale Hunting Season

Previous Features: Armed Canadian Coast Guard Storms Conservation Vessel | Nottingham Activist Returns From Whale Saving Mission In Antartica | Injured Among Sea Shepherd Crew As Japanese Military Open Fire | Activists Held Hostage By Japanese Whalers In Southern Ocean

Links: IWC official website | Wikipedia on IWC | Teens Against Whaling | Sea Shepherd Conservation Society | Greenpeace | Santiago Indymedia | Indymedia Ocean Defence

This year, like many a year before, the IWC fails to make progress in their protection of whales. Japan and other pro-whaling nations push for a partial lifting of the ban on commercial whaling. Also, the US (which has been involved with Japan’s whaling industry) has been pushing for the regulation of ‘scientific whaling’, something which conservations argue would only legitimize an already illegal activity. Japan uses the ‘scientific research’ as a smokescreen for their illegal commercial whaling practices.

There has been a debate about whether Greenland should be allowed a bigger quota of whales for their hunt and discussions are ongoing about Japan’s hunt in the Southern Ocean. It has been reported that the earliest the IWC might come to some kind of agreement is by next year’s meeting, which is to be held in Madeira, Portugal. The commission continues to be strongly divided between pro-whaling (Japan, Denmark, Norway, Iceland) and anti-whaling (Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa) nations.

Captain Paul Watson, from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, did manage to get into the hotel this year. He normally never makes it inside as the Sea Shepherd is the only organisation officially banned from attending IWC meetings. Paul, like Skye Bortoli, isn’t impressed with the state of affairs at this year’s meeting: “There were many things that could come out of this meeting. Japan could withdraw from the IWC and become a renegade whaling nation along with their partners in conservation crime Norway and Iceland. Or a compromise may be brokered that will allow the Japanese to withdraw from the Southern Ocean without losing face or thirdly, and most likely, nothing will come out of this meeting at all. From the way things are going so far it looks like Sea Shepherd will be returning to the Southern Ocean to once again enforce the regulations that the IWC and the nations of the world refuse to uphold. Oh well, I come to these meetings with no expectations hoping to be pleasantly surprised. After more than three decades I am still waiting.“

Greenpeace was also present in Chile, with a dominant presence among the various anti-whaling NGO’s and conservationists. Dave writes on the Greenpeace blog: “We hope something good comes out of these meetings, and that the commission transforms itself into a body that protects the whales and not the whalers. While commissioners sit in rooms talking, whales are still dying in the Southern Ocean and around the world from commercial whaling, ship strikes, sonar-related deaths, netting and pollution, amongst other human-induced hazards.”

On a positive note, Chile, the host of this year’s meeting has declared a permanent ban on whaling in its waters. Speaking at a former whale processing plant that Chile closed in 1967, President Michelle Bachelet said she sent a bill to Congress proposing a whale sanctuary along Chile’s coastline and declared the whale a national monument.